1.Commitment to Students and Student Learning 

As an educator, I strongly feel that it is of utmost importance that we  are dedicated to students, not only in regards to teaching them academics but also inculcating the values of a responsible citizen by planting the values of  learning skills in them. I am always aware of providing equitable learning and growing opportunities to students and therefore support diverse learners in our community.

While teaching Mathematics in my second practicum (EDPR3000), I wanted to engage all the multiple intelligences in the classroom. So, I designed multiple hands on activities to teach ratios, fraction and percentage to the students in class. One of such activities involved voting for their favorite subject by throwing tennis balls in their favorite subject bin. Students with bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence participated actively. I also played music to include musical intelligence in the classroom. As a result, Math was engaging! Math was fun! 

2.Professional Knowledge

As an Ontario teacher, I always inform my professional judgement based on the individual diverse learners in my class, the community I am in, the guidelines by Ontario Ministry of Education and school board policies. 

According to the Growing Success document by Ministry of Education, one of the seven fundamental principles of assessment and evaluation is to provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement. I used conversations and observations to do assessment for learning in  every subject I taught to provide descriptive feedback to students so that they knew their strengths and the next steps to work on

3.Professional Practice

As a new teacher, I  apply my professional knowledge and experience to promote student learning. I use appropriate pedagogy, assessment and evaluation, resources and technology in planning for and responding to the needs of individual students and learning communities. I refine my professional practice through ongoing inquiry, dialogue and reflection. 

On this new path, I learned how the curriculum documents guide in not only planning units and lessons but also how to differentiate the learning environment, content and process. For example, when I started teaching language to seventh grade in my final practicum, the focus was on how students can represent their voice in writing. As I was brainstorming on what writing task they could do which encourages them to write their voice, I came up with the idea to write a memoir to collect memories of their childhood in school or home which shaped their personality. The specific expectation in Language document that helped me to design this activity is

2.2 establish a distinctive voice in their

writing appropriate to the subject and

audience

4. Leadership in Learning Communities

As an Ontario educator, I promote and participate in the classroom and school community to create a collaborative, safe and supportive learning environment. I recognize that it is my shared responsibilities to facilitate student success.  I maintain and uphold the principles of the ethical standards in these learning communities. 

I read an article in my final semester of Teacher's College at York University on Action Research on quiet learners and how they demonstrate learning beyond speech.  The article had a deep impact on my  teaching practice and I now focus equitably on the quiet learners in my classroom.  For example, a student in my class had wonderful coding skills but did not participate much in whole class conversations. After delivering the lesson, I kept in mind to check with him about his understanding of the lesson if he had any doubts. Also, I found out that his coding skills were excellent and encouraged him by writing an encouraging note to boost up his confidence and motivated him to speak publicly as well.

5. Ongoing Professional Learning

As a teacher, I recognize that a commitment to ongoing professional learning is integral to effective practice and to student learning. Professional practice and self-directed learning are informed by experience, research, collaboration and knowledge 

During the observation phase in my first practicum, I collaborated with my mentor teacher and other teacher candidate to run the gardening club in my practicum school. Not only did I learn that doing extra curricular activities brings students and teachers form different classrooms together, I also learned  as a person that how our knowledge can grow by sharing knowledge and expertise with other people.